Digital Skills Acquisition and Business Educators' Job Effectiveness in Public Universities in Rivers and Bayelsa States

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between digital skill acquisition and Business Educators' job effectiveness in public universities. Specifically, the study investigated the relationship between ICT skill acquisition, video conferencing skill acquisition, and word processing skill acquisition, and their impact on job effectiveness. The study was guided by three research questions, and three null hypotheses tested at a 0.05 level of significance. A correlation survey design was adopted in this study. The population consisted of 72 Business Educators in the aforementioned public universities, and a census sampling of the entire population was used. Data were collected using two structured questionnaires titled “Digital Skill Acquisition Questionnaire (DSAQ) and “Job Effectiveness of Business Educators Questionnaire (JEBEQ)”. The instruments contained a total of 38 items, and which were validated by experts in Business Education. Reliability of the instruments was determined using the Cronbach Alpha method, yielding coefficients of 0.88, 0.97, 0.95, and 0.98 for ICT skill, video conferencing skill, word processing skill, and job effectiveness respectively, with an overall reliability of 0.95. The instruments were administered with the assistance of one research assistant, and all 72 copies were returned and used for analysis. Data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation to answer the research questions and test the null hypotheses. Findings revealed a very strong positive relationship between ICT skill video conferencing skill and word processing skill acquisition respectively and Business Educators’ job effectiveness, indicating that proficiency in ICT tools significantly enhances teaching and administrative performance. Video conferencing skills were also strongly related to job effectiveness, suggesting that virtual communication tools improve collaboration and instructional delivery. Word processing skills demonstrated a very strong relationship, highlighting the importance of managing digital documents efficiently for academic productivity. The study concluded that acquiring digital skills in ICT, video conferencing, and word processing significantly improves the job effectiveness of Business Educators. Based on these findings, it was recommended that Ministry of Education and educational stakeholders should provide adequate digital learning facilities, university management should support Business Educators through training and development programmes, and regular appraisals of digital skill acquisition should be conducted to identify gaps and enhance performance.